Google Inc. is free to extend its dominance of the $50 billion Internet-search market after U.S. regulators ended an investigation into whether the company unfairly skewed search results to disadvantage competitors.

Google has settled a U.S. government probe into its business practices without making any major concessions on how the company runs its Internet search engine, the world's most influential gateway to digital information and commerce.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Crude slipped from a three-month high as more Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week and on concern that new budget legislation won’t reduce the deficit fast enough.

A steadily improving economy and strong December sales lifted the American auto industry to its best performance in five years in 2012, especially for Volkswagen and Japanese-brand vehicles, and experts say the next year should be even better.

I have the ultimate hot tip if you’re obsessing over what to do with your portfolio in 2013: Ignore all the “How to Invest in 2013” nonsense that you see in magazines, blogs and on business television this time of year.

Hormel Foods apparently has a hankering for a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. The company primarily known for Spam and other cured, smoked and deli meats said Thursday that it's buying Skippy, the country's No. 2 peanut butter brand, in its biggest-ever acquisition.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Rambus Inc., the designer of high- speed memory chips, was barred by a judge from using 12 of its patents to demand royalties from Micron Technology Inc. because it improperly destroyed documents tied to intellectual-property litigation.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Current TV, the network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, was sold for about $500 million to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based cable-news channel, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Chief executive officers from DuPont Co. to Honeywell International Inc. urged U.S. politicians to move quickly on tax reform and debt reduction after the standoff over the fiscal cliff hurt the nation’s credibility.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. is poised to keep the title of world’s largest planemaker for at least two more years amid rising deliveries of the delayed 787 Dreamliner, the jet that helped it beat Airbus SAS for the first time in a decade.

TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls clothing stores, said Thursday that its December revenue at stores open at least a year rose 6 percent, and it boosted its profit outlook for the current quarter and full year.

Quiksilver Inc. said Thursday that it named Andy Mooney president and CEO of the surf and skate clothing and shoe company, succeeding Quiksilver founder Bob McKnight, who became executive chairman. The changes take effect Jan. 11.

UniFirst's first-quarter topped Wall Street expectations and the uniform company raised its annual earnings and revenue forecasts above what analysts had been predicting Thursday, sending shares to an all-time high.

Federal Reserve policymakers expressed broad support last month for the Fed's plan to buy bonds to support the U.S. economy. But they differed over how long to keep buying bonds to drive down long-term interest rates.

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt may travel to North Korea over opposition from the U.S. State Department, becoming the highest-profile businessman to visit the isolated nation since Kim Jong Un succeeded his father as leader just over a year ago.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional efforts to reduce the U.S. deficit revived tax breaks for mortgage insurance and extended interest deductions for homeowners that will cost the government $600 billion over five years.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar rose to its strongest level in almost three weeks against the euro on speculation U.S. policy makers will struggle to reach agreement on raising the nation’s debt limit, underpinning demand for the safest assets.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week as the closing of some state agencies during the holidays prompted the government to estimate some figures.

President Barack Obama signed a $633 billion defense bill for next year despite serious concerns about the limits Congress imposed on his handling of terror suspects and lawmakers' unwillingness to back the cost-saving retirement of aging ships and aircraft.

As Utah's air quality worsens, state regulators are working on a set of plans to limit everyday emissions, from banning the sale of aerosol deodorants and hair spray to prohibiting wood burning in fireplaces more often.

A conservation group was able to preserve part of a national forest in western Wyoming with an $8.75 million buyout of oil and gas leases secured by last-minute donations, including $750,000 from the founder of online stock broker TD Ameritrade.

The wind energy and ethanol industries celebrated a victory Wednesday with the inclusion of tax credit extensions in the tax relief bill approved by Congress, but that may not mean lost jobs will come back anytime soon.

Two U.S. drone strikes on northwest Pakistan killed a senior Taliban commander who fought American forces in Afghanistan but had a truce with the Pakistani military, intelligence officials said Thursday.

Enthusiasm faded on Wall Street and in European markets Thursday over U.S. legislators' deal to stave off the so-called fiscal cliff, a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could have hurt the world's largest economy.